Govt removes 312 Sikh foreign nationals from Adverse List

Government of India has reviewed the Adverse List containing 314 foreign nationals belonging to Sikh community and brought it down to just two.

According to sources, review is a continuous and dynamic process and is a part of a regular exercise. Such a review will afford an opportunity to such Sikh foreign nationals to visit India, meet their family members and reconnect to their roots.

During 1980s, many Sikh Indian nationals and foreign nationals belonging to Sikh community fell to anti-India propaganda. Some Sikh Indian nationals fled India to escape Indian authorities, became foreign nationals and took asylum outside India. They were placed in the adverse list till 2016, making them ineligible to avail visa services to visit India.

This was one major issue coming in the way of grant of visa services to asylees and their family members, mostly belonging to Sikh community, as Indian Missions maintained a local adverse list. Now, This practise has also been discontinued. Consequently, all Indian Missions abroad have been advised to grant an appropriate visa to all categories of asylees and derivative asylees (i.e. family members) whose names do not figure in the Central Adverse List.

Also, all categories of asylees who become eligible for issuance of long term Indian visa will also be eligible to apply for registration as Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholder after they have applied for and held normal visas for a period of two years.